This is obviously a sticky subject. My personal opinion is that any copyright violations that happen would be the responsibility of the individual and the file sharing website, not this forum. But it's also irresponsible to encourage copyright violations within the forum. Note that I'm not saying what is and isn't illegal; you'll need to consult your lawyer for that.

To my knowledge we don't have a formal policy for this at the moment. Likewise, I don't know of any restrictions on what kinds of links you can post. Is that a vague enough answer?

The server is running in the United States and is therefore governed by US copyright laws. I'm not an American lawyer, but I believe this precludes even linking to materials that are in violation of those laws.

The transmission of copyright material through a site is obviously a legal minefield, so I will offer this thought for consideration: there is no restriction on anyone listing their collections, nor is there any restriction on any other person contacting them directly by PM and acquiring their email address.

If they then, as private citizens operating separately from this board, wish to transmit said material without any transmission through this board then any copyright problems devolve directly upon themselves and not this board.

rustyslide wrote:The server is running in the United States and is therefore governed by US copyright laws. I'm not an American lawyer, but I believe this precludes even linking to materials that are in violation of those laws.

I've never heard that but it could be true. Sounds like something we don't want to mess around with. Even if it's not illegal nobody here wants to risk litigation over it.

I've been happy enough with the home brew stuff that lots of people post here that I don't see much need for sharing copyrighted material.

maxx england wrote:there is no restriction on anyone listing their collections, nor is there any restriction on any other person contacting them directly by PM and acquiring their email address.

If I can't see you do it then I can't catch you. However, be advised that all PMs are stored in a database I have access to, so I'd prefer if you'd just use email for anything of questionable legal merit.

Copyright law is actually dead simple: "copyright" literally means "the right to copy".

It is illegal to make a copy, in any form, or by any means, of anything that belongs to someone else.
Further - it is illegal to publish, in any form, or by any means, anything that belongs to someone else. (You can't publish without copying.)

Unless, of course, the owner of the material has given permission for such copying.

(Making a photocopy of the crossword in The Times is technically as unlawful as ripping a CD to mp3 and sharing it via a P2P network.)

Interestingly, registration of copyright is not necessary for proof of ownership, neither does it prove ownership; it just helps as a link in the chain of proof should the need arise.

For instance, it is not illegal for me to make a copy of a CD a friend loans me (physically, not electronically), for example, but if I make a copy of my disk and give the copy away, that is illegal.

There is a levy on all blank media that goes into a pool that is somehow distributed to IP holders (artists/labels).

In Sweden, it is not illegal to point to pirated materials, which is why an infamous bittorrent tracker is run there - in order to maintain the status quo in Swedish copyright law (in light of intense lobbying), the maintainers founded the Pirate Party.

The server is in the US, and therefore all American laws apply to content we distribute. In addition every user is governed by whatever laws in their nation might try and censor their activities.

I've always been kinda opposed to "bootlegging" or ripping files. I like to support the people out there workin' for a living. I even buy CDs from bands at fests that I don't even like that much...jus' to help 'em make ends meet.

In Canada, there is a concept of "fair dealing", similar to that in the UK (and Australia), and similar to the "fair use" doctrine of United States copyright law ("fair use" is unique to the United States).
It is complex, but mainly concerned with academic use of material for, eg, citation.

"A thought to make one laugh till one gets mildly ill."
A typically unhelpful and meaningless comment.

Repeat: "Copyright law is actually dead simple", no matter the country; it can become complicated in its application (finding the true owner, for example, to obtain copying rights) or if contention of "right" arises.
But as far as the people using this board are concerned, it is simple: copy someone else's material, in any form, without permission, and you are stealing it. What's difficult about that?

raiph wrote:In Canada, there is a concept of "fair dealing", <...> mainly concerned with academic use of material for, eg, citation.

I just looked it up and it's not called "fair use" in the laws here, but everyone calls it that*, and there is something called "fair dealing", but that wasn't what I was talking about, merely that we are allowed to make private copies of media that comes into our hands. It is widely believed here that our copyright laws are more permissive than the laws of the US, and that the recording industry is trying very hard to have Canadian copyright law tightened up to the levels of the US and the DCMA.

*presumably out of proximity to the US.

But as far as the people using this board are concerned, it is simple: copy someone else's material, in any form, without permission, and you are stealing it. What's difficult about that?

It's not, particularly. I could've been less ambiguous in my first post (#3), but I thought it was obvious that people shouldn't post material here for which they have no sanction (despite Streetslim's question). I was commenting on the posting of links to such, and despite the dead-simplicity of copyright everywhere, there are different laws in different countries with regard to that (e.g. Sweden).